In order to form a workpiece, such as a wooden block, into a finished product it is often necessary to perform an operation on the workpiece. For example, in the manufacture of furniture, a wooden workpiece must often be lathed, drilled and routed to transform the unfinished piece of wood into a finished furniture piece.
Wooden blocks have been used for quite some time as components of toys. Generally, the wooden block is processed to give the block some sort of feature that is required by the toy. Probably the most common example is a wooden block on which a letter is carved for use of the block as a part of a children's alphabet block set.
Another game using wooden blocks is BLOCKS AND MARBLES brand children's toy which is manufactured by BLOCKS AND MARBLES BRAND TOYS, INC. of Crawfordsville, Ind. The BLOCKS AND MARBLES game includes plurality of wooden blocks into which troughs, and tunnels have been formed to provide a path along which a marble can travel when the blocks are placed in an ordered array.
One block component of a BLOCKS AND MARBLES toy set is a generally cuboid block having an elbow-shaped tunnel formed therethrough. This elbow-shaped tunnel containing block can be arrayed with various trough-containing blocks and other tunnel-containing blocks to form a structure that provides an interconnected pathway down which a marble can travel.
As will be appreciated by those familiar with manufacturing wood-related products, it is often desirable to automate the process for forming a wooden workpiece into a finished product. By automating the production process, labor costs can be reduced, and quality control can be improved.
Several automatic wood processing devices exist. MacQueston U.S. Pat. No. 3,565,142 discloses to an automatic drilling machine for drilling round spindles. MacQueston's device includes a gravity feed hopper for holding the undrilled spindles. A pushing mechanism pushes the spindle past cutters to trim the ends of the spindle, until the spindle is above a V-shaped work holder against which the round spindle piece is clamped by clamps.
Strange, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,986 relates to an automatic device for dadoing cabinet panels and the like. In the STRANGE device, blank panels are manually positioned on the device before a routing operation is commenced. A pneumatic logic circuit is provided to control the router operation in response to manual settings and feedback signals.
Ingram, U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,572, relates to a wood molding routing apparatus for making a dental block-type wood molding having a series of evenly spaced notches along its length. The Ingram device feeds a long piece of molding a pre-determined distance and then cuts a series of notches by using multiple routers. The piece is then indexed an appropriate distance along its length so that the next section can be notched. This cycle is repeated until the entire length of molding is notched. The Ingram device uses some pneumatic switches to control its operations.
Pearson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,518,813 relates to an automatic stock working machine which can subject a single piece of stock to a plurality of machine operations such as forming, drilling, tapping and final cut off. The Pearson device uses a gang of tools which are non-rotatively mounted with respect to the position thereof, and a stock holding mechanism in which the stock is rotated and which itself is rotated upon an indexing operation to advance each piece of stock to the next succeeding tool. Pearson uses an electric circuit to control the operation of his device.
Halicki, et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,007,500 relates to a strip processing machine for automatically feeding, conveying, sawing, drilling, and unloading strip material. The Halicki device alternately conveys and saws strip material upon placement of the material on a feedway leading to a saw unit.
Pryor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,328, relates to an improved trimmer section for use in a saw mill. The Pryor device includes means for automatically selecting timbers and the like to be trimmed, and for automatically routing trimmed timbers to one of several different storage and loading points in the saw mill. The timber is automatically transferred through several stages of mechanical manipulation to the designated station.
Pritelli, U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,081, relates to an automatic device for machining panels or similar articles, and particularly for drilling and milling them in accordance with the "Folding" system.
Novozhilov, Soviet Inventors Certificate No. 818,856, relates to an electrical priority logic unit for use in connection with a hydraulically actuated device.
Although the devices discussed above most likely perform their intended functions in a workmanlike manner, room for improvement exists. In particular, none of the devices discussed above appears to be well suited for performing an operation on a wooden block.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a machine which automatically performs a two-stage drilling operation on a wooden block.